Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everybody, every so often when I buy a few dozen small crickets from the local pet stores there are these dark wiggly grub like bugs mixed in with the crickets. They look almost like a silverfish or a small centipede. I buy from about 4 different stores and all of them have had them. There are never a lot of them, just one or two per 4 dozen or so. I usually squish them or throw them outside, and have never fed them to my leos. Any clue what they are and if they would be harmful to the lizards?
Thanks
Tony

I've had this blue fuzzy worm thing, bloody gross looking.

Anyone know what these are?

i dont know what they are exactly called but are often times seen with crickets and other feeders.... squish em... let me se if i can do some reading and find out what they are
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-robin struck
R2 Reptiles

What you are describing sound like dermestid beetle larvae. They are considered a pest and feed on the bodies of the dead crickets. They turn into little black beetles about 5 mm long with hairy undersides (you'll need a magnifying glass to see this feature). I've heard that the hairs on the larvae can be irritating to whatever ingests them, but back when I was feeding crix I'd throw them in with my bibron's gecko and she loved them.
-Alice

see i did a search for those and the pictures i found looked nothing like what i have seen.. the beetles are small round and black oh and shiney
maybe a ssp
lookat the beetle on the left they sorta look like that
http://lancaster.unl.edu/enviro/Images/Insects/warehousebeetle1.jpg

kinda like this but i dont think you can see a head
http://www.west-ext.com/pests/carpet_beetle_picture.jpg

here is one kinda like ours
http://www.ks-agr.org/plantpest/picturesInsectsdermestidbeetle-adult.jpg
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-robin struck
R2 Reptiles

I bet we are used to seeing different species. The name dermestid actually refers to a whole family of beetles, the Dermestidae, so the species that comes with our crickets probably varies with the location of the supplier and the dermestids native to that area.

Your search for pictures was much more fruitful than mine. Your second site has pics closest to what I'm used to seeing, but I couldn't open the third. From the descriptions, most were described as carpet beetles or pests on grain. The ones I'm used to seeing look a lot like the ones maintained in colonies to strip the flesh off of skeletons, but I couldn't find any pictures online.

I think that the small hairs on the adult beetles and the hairy larvae are diagnostic of the family (I left my beetle book at work, but I'll double check tomorrow). I was still feeding crix / finding dermestids back when I took entomology and my professor confirmed my ID, but it's also possible we're finding different families of beetles / larvae altogether; trying to compare apples and oranges

-Alice

It's a kind of gross pic, but these dermestid larvae are the closest to the ones I'm used to seeing come in with crickets:
http://www.skulltaxidermy.com/image/bearbig1.jpg

-Alice

Yeah, Alice, I see those alot, ijust kill them and toss 'em.

rtgsee